Manny Abreu is playing football for more than the love of the game. He is playing for the love of his
2-year-old daughter.

“I love her to death. She is why I play,” he said the other day after practice. “Amayah, she is my motivation, and that’s why I have her (tattooed) on my left arm. Whenever I’m running laps I look at her (name). She’s my inspiration. She’s great, she’s fun, she smiles. She loves being with me. She loves to eat. She has a big appetite like her father.

“She lives with her mother in Union City,” he said. “I see her every once in a while, whenever I get a chance to go back home. She understands that I have to do this. I tell her every day.”

Abreu, a redshirt freshman, will start his first game at linebacker Monday against Fresno State (4 p.m., ESPN). One of the most highly recruited players in the country two years ago, he played only a few minutes as a freshman before going out for the season with a hip injury.

Not only is he juiced for his first college start, he also has added motivation from the fact that Fresno’s tight end is a preseason All-America. Nothing like a little challenge to start your college career.

Fresno senior tight end McKenna Pasco is known as “”Bear,” a name he’s had since his days as a bruising toddler. He grew up on a cattle farm and is a champion rodeo roper. To him, linebackers are just another animal to wrestle to the ground.

Is the redshirt freshman afraid of the big, bad Bear?

“I just take it as it is. I’m just going to go out there and do what I have to do,” Abreu said. “I know I haven’t
played in a while. I’ve had a couple of loose nerves, but it’s a good feeling.

“I just want to prove to myself what kind of player I am. Obviously if I reach my standards, everybody can judge from there. I just want to go out and execute and do my best. You can’t go home with a sad face if you tried your best and did your best.”

He is part of a linebacking crew that could prove to be the best in coach Greg Schiano’s tenure. He is also an example of extremely talented younger players moving swiftly up the depth charts.

“We get after the ball. We want that ball. We want to cause fumbles, turnovers, and loss of yardage. We’re a downhill team,” Abreu said of the linebacking unit. “The guys love to hit; we just love smackin’ people.”

The 20-year-old graduate of Union Hill High School was born in the Dominican Republic. He moved to the states at age 2 where his family settled in Brooklyn. He returned to the Dominican for nine months before returning to the U.S. and living with his family in Utah. Two years later they returned to the Metropolitan area, one year before he would enter high school.

His brother Frank played football at Provo High School in Utah, and it was he who talked little brother Manny into trying out for the sport at Union Hill High.

“I had never played before, but I did pretty well right away. Coach kind of noticed me when I was playing tight end,” Abreu said. “”I ran a drag, the guy tried to tackle me and I broke his collarbone.

“Football makes you grow, it makes you a man,” Abreu said. “There’s tough times, bumps and bruises. When you’re running and tired and being pushed, that’s when you mature.”

Having a child while you’re in school can also speed the process, but Abreu has no shortage of support.

“This place, it’s home. I can call this my second home. We just get love. That’s what I love about this place. I feel so comfortable here. And Coach Schiano, he’s a great guy. He helps us out. I don’t know, I just look at him as a father. I didn’t grow up with my father, my dad left me as a little boy. So I look up to coach as my father,” Abreu said.

Smiling he added, “Someday I’ll tell him.”

With his mom and four siblings offering support from the family side, Abreu’s days of transient adjustments are in the past. He is rooted now in family, spirit and football.

Quiet by nature, Abreu nonetheless releases a controlled package of aggression, desperation and anger on the football field. It is what linebackers do.

“I just turn it on,” he said with a big smile. “You have to learn how to live in both worlds. I just change. I’m very quiet before a game, I listen to my Spanish music. I put on my headset and play my bachata and meruenge.

“I love my heritage,” he added. “And one more thing. I thank my mom for everything she gave me. Especially for the opportunity to bring me to the United States, and to give me a chance to be here.”